Blast from the past: Exploring atomic bomb history beyond Los Alamos

By Michael Janofsky

NEW YORK: The blockbuster movie about J. Robert Oppenheimer might have left the impression that only New Mexico was involved in developing America's atomic bomb. Hardly. Neighboring Nevada played a vital role, too. And the Atomic Museum in this glittery town known for gambling and big-name entertainment will tell you all about it and more. Here, just beyond the major hotels and casinos is a museum dedicated to the history and science of nuclear weapons as a critical part of America's national security for more than 85 years. Its one of 200 museums around the country affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution and a thematic partner to nearly a dozen others that highlight various aspects of the nation's nuclear programs.

The Atomic Museum makes clear the genius and necessity of developing awesome nuclear power while not ignoring the lethal impact it had on ordinary people the moral conflict at the core of Oppenheimer, winner of seven Academy Awards for 2023, including best picture and best actor for Cillian Murphy in the title role. Among a wealth of actual and facsimile objects used in development and testing are an identical shell casing of the Fat Man bomb dropped on Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945, and a replica of the actual bomb that it would have encased. Elsewhere is a display meant to honor the Japanese people killed and injured by Fat Man and Little Boy, a smaller bomb dropped on Hiroshima three days earlier. Together, they killed more than 200,000 people by some estimates, effectively ending World War II.

We understand the topic is complicated, Joseph Kent, the deputy director and curator of the museum, said of exhibits that move visitors along a detailed chronology of the nation's atomic program with an emphasis on Nevada's role as a former site for atmospheric and underground testing. We try to inform the public without getting into whether its all good or bad. That's not really for us to decide.

The starting point of the museum is a gallery dedicated to the Manhattan Project and the Trinity test overseen by Oppenheimer in July 1945, the world's first nuclear detonation, set off in a remote area of New Mexico. At the time, Oppenheimer was the first director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

While the Trinity exhibit was opened in 2020 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the test, it helped spur attendance at the museum once the Covid pandemic subsided. Kent said the film and recent nuclear saber-rattling toward Ukraine by Russian President Vladimir Putin helped the museum draw more than 50,000 visitors in 2023, the most in five years.

After people watched Oppenheimer and they hear about what's going on in the world, they realize they don't know as much about this topic as they probably should, he said. Atomic bombs, nuclear weapons, Oppenheimer, the Soviet Union, the Cold War they want to find a place where they can learn about them in an addressable form.

Beyond weapons, the museum offers a window into the science that produced them, but also the everyday life they influenced. In one diorama of a 1950s family, the parents look away in fear from a boxy television set showing a nuclear explosion. Another display shows how the word atom became a cultural touchstone a Kix cereal box promoting an Atomic Bomb Ring inside, an Atoman comic book and a canister once filled with Atomic Fireballs candy. Nearby is a scale model of a blazing red Ford Nucleon, a proposed nuclear-powered car from 1957 that the company never produced.

The visceral center of the museum is the Ground Zero Theater, which uses a 15-minute black-and-white film of an actual nuclear test to approximate what it was like to work on it. Watching from benches, visitors see the explosion, then experience what happens next utter silence, followed by a deafening roar filling the room and the benches shaking to simulate waves of the aftershock.

Later, Troy Wade, who served as a test site controller, appears on the screen. When you see it here you recognize that its a very, very terrible weapon of war and when you see one, you understand what it can do and why it must never be used, he says. But you understand the value of having it and having your enemies know that you're not afraid to use it if you want.

Other areas have more artifacts of the early days of development. One showcase displays two dozen types of Geiger counters. Another has an authentic Fizeau instrumentation package, a huge cubic device of instruments, recorders and cameras that was positioned 500 feet above a test explosion to capture temperature, pressure and levels of radiation.

The museum pays tribute to other sites that contributed important elements of the nuclear program, including the vast expanse of rugged federal land 65 miles north of here, known in its early days as the Nevada Test Site. About 100 atmospheric tests were conducted there from 1951 through 1962 and more than 800 underground tests from 1963 through 1992. Renamed the Nevada National Security Sites, its now where scientists maintain warheads. Free public tours are held monthly.

There are also nods to those among America's 18 national laboratories that continue to conduct research and development in energy, technology and related fields, including Los Alamos and the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.

While the subject matter of the Atomic Museum may be more cerebral than other Las Vegas attractions, like the Burlesque Hall of Fame or the Mob Museum, it does serve to remind people of a nervous period of American history following World War II, when fear was pervasive, schoolchildren practiced hiding under their desks, families built fallout shelters and America kept developing ever more powerful weapons, just in case.

One of our guiding principles is we are not here to try to change people's minds, Kent said of nuclear development. Our goal is to provide an informed opinion. Whether you are for or against nuclear weapons testing, ultimately we can all agree that the history needs to be remembered.